Loving Kindness .. to you!

At our next Simply Silence Meditation Session - Monday 23rd December - I am going to share a wonderful Metta 'Loving Kindness' Meditation practice.

Always .. at this time of year .. it seems the perfect meditation practice to share with a group, to bring into our practice our heartfelt concern and care for others in the world around us.

Metta is a Pali word translated as ‘love’ or more often ‘loving kindness’ .. and this meditation is one where we offer unconditional well-wishes and openhearted gentle nurturing .. first to ourselves and then to others .. just as we are!

In the traditional practice of metta meditation we systematically offer loving-kindness to ourselves, and then to a selection of others, through the silent repetition of some classic phrases. In the Buddhist tradition we practice metta meditation to methodically cultivate the quality of loving-kindness ..

.. and we began by offering metta to ourselves:

May I be happy
May I be peaceful … at ease
May I accept myself just as I am
May I be free to live and love fully

We then extend the same wish to others .. a loved one .. a dear friend .. a neutral person (such as your barista who makes your delicious latte each morning, or the lady who takes your dry cleaning) .. and finally someone we find a little difficult..

May you be happy
May you be peaceful .. at ease
May you accept yourself just as you are
May you be free to live and love fully…

One of the true blessings of metta practice is that it puts us in touch with how many people we truly love and care about (an immediate source of joy and nourishment when you are feeling crappy or stressed) .. and it also helps build the connection we have with ALL people .. those in distant lands, different tribes, far off places .. it opens us to others and brings us all together.

Please don't worry if you don't truly feel the hearts warmth extending out .. it is much more important that our intention is there to begin to open the circle ..

and in this way Meta meditation helps us shift our focus from getting love to creating it, from fixing life to embracing it ..

May you be happy .. May you be peaceful .. at ease ..